Off Page SEO: How to find Readers for your Blog

Off page SEO refers to the search techniques you use outside your website, in order to get better ranking on search engines and find readers for your blog.

Unlike On page SEO which happens on your website, a lot of amateur bloggers and SEOs believe that off page search optimization is all about link building.

But, that’s not right!

Beyond link building, off page optimization also involves other external activities that can get you a better ranking on Search Engine Response Page (SERP).

Can Off Page SEO help your website?

From guest blogging, to social media and influencer marketing etc, a good off the page search strategy, can get you more readers and a far more successful website.

It’s true a lot of content marketers and bloggers do not really understand what off page optimization is all about.

Many more have been doing off page SEO optimizations without really doing it right.

And still, many more do not even bother about it; either because they don’t have time or they do not think it’s important.

I have been of the latter group for a long time. Until I decided to leverage the off page SEO strategy, for a better reach.

But hey, it doesn’t really matter which of the divide you belong…

Truth is, off page SEO optimization can help your website. And in fact, it’s helped mine. Especially when I was starting out.

As a new business, I didn’t have any search engine traffic whatsoever. So, getting new clients from organic search was definitely bound to be a serious issue.

To start with, i was yet to earn the credibility or build sufficient brand recognition for a random stranger to pick any interest in my business.

But, with the right off page SEO strategy, I was able to hack my social media and get some traffic and sales back to my website.

So, yes! Off page SEO can help your website.

But, here’s the thing. Before this can work for you, you have to understand the major off page optimization strategies and do it right.

Off Page Optimization Strategies and how it works

For me, the following are the top search engine off page optimization strategy, based on their order of importance:

• Social Media Marketing
• Guest Blogging
• Influencer Marketing
• Link building.

In the next paragraph, I will discuss briefly on each part of these optimization strategies and why they are important to you as a blogger, content marketer or website owner.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has been to me, one of the most rewarding aspect of off page optimization. Especially, where you have a large and loyal audience.

As one of the most vital part of off page search optimization strategy, social media marketing can work for you, whether you have a large or small audience.

It can also work for you, regardless of whether you are a beginner, amatuer expert.

How Social Media Marketing Works

When done well, social media marketing can increase your website visitors, give you new leads and create a new tribe of fans for your website.

But how does this work?

Like I mentioned earlier, when I decided to launch my business, my first set of clients were gotten directly from my social media timeline.

Of course I was not a social media super star. And I didn’t have any large following but I had some number of followers.

These people were already used to me and my brand. And were engaging with my posts and update.

As a small business owner; with the right social media strategy, you can leverage social media marketing to build your business.

A lot of small and micro businesses are already doing this.

It is true that you may not be planning to build a local or social media restricted business but, here’s the truth…

While you’re launching out, people have to see that you’re credible and trustworthy before they can take you serious.

And really, it takes a lot of hard work, effort and consistency to convince one new follower out there.

And for you to get to that point, you will need a lot of years. Or maybe months of work and effort.

But, there are also a handful of people who already know and trust your brand. And might be willing to take a risk on you.

These people are your social media followers and friends. They already know and trust your brand to a certain degree.

And because of this, it will be easier to convince them to buy from you and subsequently become your very first brand promoters, instead of a random stranger that would stumble on your website.

Utilizing a good social media marketing strategy that will get these guys from off the social media to become your clients will to a large extent help your business as it kicks off.

This is why social media marketing should be one of your top priorities as off page SEO strategy.

Guest Blogging

Guest posting is another important SEO strategy that has helped a lot of bloggers and content creators to get website traffic.

It is also one of the key strategies you can use to build brand awareness and back links right over to your website and blogs.

Notwithstanding it’s importance, guest blogging is not a walkover.

It demands a lot of strategic and calculated effort, web content mastery, an ability to spot the right websites and topics and an ability to persevere until you get the best results.

Is Guest Blogging a good Off Page Strategy?

Guest Blogging is a very good SEO strategy for off page SEO.

In fact, a lot of search optimization experts will advise that you pay more attention to guest blogging over other SEO strategies…

But, that doesn’t mean that guest blogging is the best off page SEO strategy for you or your website.

Reason for this is because every website does not have the same marketing goal.

To get the best results for your guest blogging effort, you have to choose a strategy that will help you achieve your specific marketing goal.

So, if your goal is to get more brand awareness, you can focus on a well coordinated guest blogging campaign.

If on the other hand, you want to get more leads, you might decide to focus on a different strategy.

For guest posting to work, your best approach should depend on the specific goal you want to achieve.

You should be able to measure the time and effort needed against other marketing activities and then find out the one that will drive the best results then focus on that.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing is the art of using popular people, celebrities or individuals with a large number of following to have them identify with, recommend or support your brand.

These influencers could be bloggers, thought leaders, top SEO experts with large following, celebrities, etc.

The main reason for using influencers is to get them to promote your products to their audience.

Does Influencer Marketing work as Off Page SEO?

Like other off page search optimization tactic, influencer marketing does not have to work for your website, exactly the same way it’s working for others.

This is because a successful influencer marketing campaign depends on your products or the website you’re promoting.

And also, the influencer you choose and their audience.

Choosing the right influencer to promote a relevant product can help you drive better results.

But, the moment you choose the wrong influencer or promote your stuff to the wrong audience, a lot could go wrong.

For influencer marketing to work as an off page SEO strategy, you have to choose the right influencer and the right audience.

Link Building

Literally, link building is all about the search engine optimization strategies that helps in getting other websites to link back to your website.

The reason link building is important is because in times past, the more other websites link to your website, the more Google and other search engines algorithms feel that your website is very credible.

So, it usually happens that the more backlinks you have, the better the search engine will rank your website and web pages on the search engine result page (SERP).

Away from that, link building is one of the most important strategy, when it comes to off page optimization.

In fact to a lot of search engine optimization experts believe that, off page SEO is all about link building.

Of course it’s obvious off page optimization is more than back links.

But, looking at it from a different perspective, you will also notice that a lot of the off page SEO strategy still leads back to link building.

How can link building be done right?

To get better results from link building, you have to do your best to get back links from credible websites with a decent ranking on the SERP.

Now, going back to what I mentioned, I noted that the more back links you have, the better ranking you’ll get from the search engine.

But there’s more to that…

I mean, things have changed. Right now your rankings does not depend on your link profile.

A lot depends on the quality of the website that’s linking to your site.

I want you to understand this clearly…

A web page with 1,000 links from spammy websites with low page ranks will still have lower Google rankings, compared to a website with 100 links from high quality websites.

This is why in as much as link building is very important as an Off page SEO strategy, you have to be wary of getting back links from low quality websites.

Final Words

Off page optimization strategies has delivered great results for a lot of businesses.

It can also do the same for your small business website.

But it’s very possible to do all the right things the wrong way.

Paying attention to details in order to evolve an off page SEO strategy that is based on your own goals is the first step towards a strategy that works.

If you follow through the strategy in this guide, you’ll be able to improve on your off page SEO.

And where you need further help, our experts can help you evolve a strategy that’s customized for your business.

So, it’s over to you now. Which of these strategies have you been using for your off page optimization?